


Unexpected Gifts

by Shulik



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-07-13
Updated: 2012-07-27
Packaged: 2017-11-09 21:48:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/458814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shulik/pseuds/Shulik





	1. Chapter 1

+

 

Haymitch has never been so glad that Katniss is his second in command as he is right at that very moment. Average height, with a thin build and lean, wiry muscles- Katniss has never been particularly intimidating, but when she lets her wolf loose, a black beast of an animal- that’s when Katniss becomes terrifying. 

“You sure about this?” she asks idly, standing behind him in her worn in leather, dark braid slung over her shoulder. If one didn’t look too close, didn’t see the yellow irises of Katniss’s grey eyes, didn’t feel the heat given off her skin and the subtle smell of _forest and home_ , then she would look like nothing more than a teenager. 

She’s anything but that.

“Yes,” Haymitch grunts out, he walks over to the window where he can hear them disembarking from their cars, movements too smooth and easy to _ever_ seem human- “I have to be. It’s for the good of the pack.” 

Their cars are all black, sleek and expensive. Haymitch snorts, of course they are. When have vampires not taken to excess like ducks to water? 

“I’ll be here,” Katniss says next to him, and holy hell, when has she become even _more_ silent than she used to be? 

“Throughout the whole thing,” she makes a face, “the _ceremony_ or whatever, I’ll be right by your side.” 

Haymitch startles, surprised and a little bit warm, impossibly fond of his Beta as he eyes her- “you sure about that?” 

Katniss voluntarily spending time with the bloodsuckers is a disaster waiting to happen, but Haymitch supposes anything is better than letting Gale loose on them. 

Gale’s a bigger wolf than both of them, scarier looking and with a snarl that sounds like thunder rolling through the grasslands- but Gale’s also a little bit psychotic when it comes to the vamps, the classist divide between them, the centuries long feud that had only finished a decade ago, a temporary ceasefire, an end to the endless killing between their kinds. 

This marriage, this _bonding_ between the Mellark coven and Haymitch’s pack- it’s supposed to be a peace agreement that will ally them against any future threats, protect their territory and give them free access to other covens’ dens across the country. For all the talk about the ceasefire, it’s still dangerous for wolves to travel in vamp territory and having the Mellark protection will allow his wolves to travel freely for the first time in _centuries_. 

If he has to marry a bloodsucker to give his pack freedom, then Haymitch will do it. 

“What do you know of her?” Katniss frowns as a couple of the vamps begin taking out luggage from a large Mercedes towards the end of the procession. Jesus, it looks like there are bags after bags of expensive looking suitcases being dropped onto the pebbled driveway. Haymitch suppresses a shudder of distaste as his eye makes out the monogrammed detail on them- ‘ET’. 

“Elizabeth Fiona Trinket, turned at the beginning of the century in one of the Southern states- there are no records on which one. Finnick’s informs us that she prefers to go by the name of Effie,” Haymitch curls his lip back remembering their human’s wry laughter when he was told about the upcoming marriage, “she’s also somehow managed to become Mellark’s right hand despite not being special enough to stand out in any way.” 

There is a silence between them while Katniss considers his words. She smells like pack and home and right now, she smells of anger and worry and it’s only the conflicting emotions warring within her that are stopping her from leaving Haymitch to deal with the vamps on his own. That and her loyalty. Once won, Katniss Everdeen’s loyalty can never be broken. A priceless trait in a beta, a dangerous one in a wolf. 

“You sure about the info? Mellark’s not exactly known for picking weaklings as his seconds, case in point- the illustrious Miss Mason,” Katniss finally speaks pointing down, eyebrow arched as they watch a thin, black leather clad form move and order others around beneath them. The vampire is beautiful, that’s to be expected- all of them are, but she’s also somehow more _alive_ than any of the bloodsuckers moving gracefully around her. It’s the magic that binds them, the faint aura of death and the beyond that makes them so compelling but the female ordering them around, all large gestures and glaringly pointed fangs- she feels like she could be someone _interesting_. 

She also has a body count surpassed only by one Peeta Mellark. 

“Yeah, I know-“ Haymitch rubs a hand over his face, the beard covering his jaw, “I’m just hoping this doesn’t come back to bite us in the ass.” 

“Famous last words, alpha?” Katniss asks him wryly, grey eyes, the same eyes as Haymitch practically dancing with mirth in the face of this much ‘optimism’. She’s always had a quiet, dry sense of humor, his beta and Haymitch really fucking hopes that this won’t hurt her, won’t hurt any of them. 

Haymitch laughs even as he wants to snarl, to run and tear and rip out the throats of the things moving in his home. He hears the undead moving into the pack’s house, practically silent steps as they arrange his future intended’s things in the foyer. He laughs and laughs and because it’s a little bit ridiculous and if he doesn’t laugh, then he’s liable to start something that only blood will finish- Katniss starts giggling along with him, a harsh, unused sound that scrapes at the icy hold of fear in Haymitch’s chest. The fear that he’s doing something that will come back to bite all of them in the ass, that this is a mistake, something that he will have to pay for until the last of his pack hates him. 

It’s a bit hysterical and it feels amazing, cleansing and ridiculous. 

“Oh god,” Haymitch sucks in a breath and grins, slinging an arm around Katniss’s shoulders and nuzzling his face into her, inhaling her scent and softly biting at the skin between her shoulder and neck in a quick display of affection and reaffirmation. No matter what happens, she will always be his. His bite, his beta, his family. 

“I really fucking hope not,” Haymitch says and smiles, feeling the laughter shaking through Katniss’s body. 

 

+

 

Mellark is the same, softly smiling dick that Haymitch remembers from the initial negotiations for the contract. The Council had brokered the deal between his pack and their coven and Haymitch had nothing more to do than bear his teeth, cut open the skin of his palm and let Mellark take a tentative taste of his blood. 

It was horrifying, willingly letting a vamp suck him after avoiding it for most of his life and Haymitch had stood and bore it, his wolf baying for Mellark’s undead blood, for the head of his natural enemy. 

“Good evening Alpha Abernathy,” Mellark has extended his hand, wrist first to Haymitch. Following the proper protocol, the _new_ protocol for a meeting between vamps and weres, now that shooting each other in the face is out of the question. He’s calm, easy, despite the fact that he’s in the home of the largest werewolf pack in Virginia- Haymitch can smell no worry or nervousness on him. 

It’s infuriating how calm he is. 

“Mellark,” Haymitch nods back, barely dipping his head as his claws extend around the vampire’s wrist. Inhaling the scent, dead things and dust, wet earth and blood- Haymitch is shocked to find himself unrepelled, not as disgusted by the vampire’s scent as he would have been before the Council’s interference. 

He drops the hand like it’s burning him, flinching back in an instinctual reaction.

“I apologize,” Mellark says smoothly, unravelling his white shirt back down, “I should have prepared you in advance, the Council’s witches have been working quite diligently.” He smiles softly and somehow, the expression isn’t the usual bloodsucker grin full of fangs and the hidden promise of danger. It’s warm. Comforting. 

“I can see that,” Haymitch growls out, unprepared for this gentility between them, this forced warmth bound by magic and a blood promise not to kill. 

Mellark sighs, probably fully aware that Haymitch would like nothing more than to rip his throat out. “Why don’t we proceed with what we came here to do? Would you like to meet Effie today or tomorrow?” 

Haymitch shrugs, “why not now? Why bother wasting any more time on this than we have to?” 

“Excellent,” Mellark smiles with a hint of fang and tips his head back, “then why doesn’t your friend on the ceiling join us?” 

Haymitch freezes before looking up to see that Mellark is smiling right at Katniss. She has her legs wrapped around one of the ceiling beams, hidden in the shadows, in the thickest part of the wooden beams crisscrossing each other wearing a mild form of a glamour that a witch had sold them for a vial of werewolf blood. Yet, Mellark has somehow managed to find her.

“After all, how can we proceed with the bonding if our sides don’t trust each other?” Mellark tilts his head, examining the ceiling with a bland look in his blue eyes. 

Haymitch considers this then sighs. “It’s alright Katniss.” 

He can tell that she put a little bit extra into her jump off the ceiling beam because when she lands, easily absorbing the shock as she extends from her crouch, bow ready in her hands- Mellark’s eyes are wide and very, very impressed.

“Alpha,” Katniss gives Haymitch a deferential nod, eyes dark as she stares at the vampire in front of them. 

“We’re fine. Don’t worry.” Haymitch puts a little bit of authority into his voice, a low growl beneath his words that only another wolf would be able to understand.

Katniss stows her bow away into its sheath on her back with a practiced flick before stepping forward, slightly behind Haymitch and to his right. If experience is anything to go by, she’s also glowering something fierce at Mellark. 

“Dead man’s blood?” Mellark nods genially over at the thigh holster on Katniss’s leather clad leg. Beetee’s newest development, smaller, more compact arrows with three times the velocity and efficiency. All of them coated in dead man’s blood to make the job much easier. “Isn’t that a little much?”

“Of course not,” Katniss bares her teeth at him, “Alpha’s safety is my priority.” 

“Ah,” Mellark smiles at her with a nod of understanding, “then I commend you on your choice of weaponry.” 

He actually looks impressed with her. Unwillingly, Haymitch feels a measure of respect for him. Very few beings have been smart enough not to underestimate Katniss with a bow. None of them have lived. 

“Alright,” Haymitch interrupts the weird staring contest that’s broken out between the two of them, “let’s get this show on the road. We don’t have much time before the evening patrol changes.”’ _And Gale comes back_ ’, Haymitch thinks silently. It’s going to be a hassle, dealing with Gale’s inevitable temper tantrum so he’d really like to get this meeting out of the way. Introduce himself to the vampire that’s going to be living with them from now on, make nice for a little bit and then stow her away in one of the further wings and preferably never think of her again. 

He’s sure he can get one of the omegas to deal with her after. 

“Absolutely,” Mellark says and then the doors are opening, Johanna Mason coming in first, a smirk on her pointed elfish face. Behind her is another vampire, slender, wearing the most ridiculous dress that Haymitch has ever seen and that includes the time that Rory Hawthorne lost a bet and was forced to wear a pinafore around the house for a solid week. She’s also wearing a bright purple wig that descends to her back in luridly covered waves and has a small ball of metal embedded in the skin below her right eye and close to her temple. 

“Holy-“ Katniss breathes out behind him, hand clamped hard onto Haymitch’s shoulder as they both stare at the newcomer with twin expressions of shock and incredulity. 

“Hi!” the new arrival chirps beatifically and _slides_ over to Haymitch. “I’m Effie,” she smiles at him, a bright sunny grin that’s somehow just _right_ on her face, despite the unearthly pallor and the shitty wig and piercing. 

He can’t help but smile back at her, still struck dumb by the overabundance of smiling and sheer _colour_ dripping off her. 

“Haymitch,” Katniss grunts out when the silence gets to be too much and the grin starts slipping off Effie’s face, “his name is Haymitch.” Did he say that he absolutely loves his beta? Because he does. 

“Well Haymitch,” Effie says happily, extending her wrist to him with the same cheerful grin- “today is going to be a big, big, big day for all of us, isn’t it?” 

She smells like flowers and dead leaves. She smells like autumn. 

Haymitch inhales and holds her scent close.


	2. Chapter 2

“Alpha,” Gale says darkly, looking a little crazy around the eyes and a whole lot pissed off if the pinched way he’s tightening his lips is any indication, “I sincerely hope that you know what you’re doing.” 

“Of course I do,” Haymitch doesn’t look up, keep writing until the end of the line, until the last of the pack’s monthly budget numbers have been entered into their accounting ledgers and only then does he look up at Gale, leaning back in his favorite leather armchair and studying the young, impetuous wolf with mild curiosity. 

“Is there a problem?” he raises an eyebrow. “Have you come to air a _grievance_?” he cocks his head, amused and a little angry that Gale still hasn’t learned to stand down. 

Grievance had been on one of Rory Hawthorne’s Word of the Day calendar thingies. Haymitch thinks wistfully of Rory, with his love of knowledge and his instinctive respect towards werewolf etiquette- he would make an amazing beta. It’s just a matter of seeing what he grows up to be. 

Instead, he got stuck with Gale, Rory’s older brother. Haymitch is still trying to find something about him that he likes. 

Outside of the fact that he saved Katniss’s life from hunters, Gale has been mostly trouble. Three years turned and he hasn’t learned how to submit properly, has gotten into more territory fights with other wolves than most of their pack _combined_ and has also, somehow, managed to bring his whole family into the mansion. 

Probably when Haymitch wasn’t looking. Probably during that year when the idea of bonding to a vampire coven had first occurred to him, and Haymitch had spent it blindingly drunk, chugging back the Elven wine by gallon-full, trusting Katniss to run the pack as well as he usually did. 

She ran it _better_. 

Katniss, with her level-headed approach to things and her ability to look past people’s bullshit and figure out the best solution to a problem- she had organized things so well that Haymitch, had he not known his second in command down to her last drop of blood, would have been sure that she was preparing to splinter off and start her own pack. 

Katniss, as much as she would be one of the fiercest and most dangerous alphas around- has one distinct trait that will keep her from going for a position of power. 

Her lack of desire for it. 

Katniss has never wanted to be in charge. Has never wanted the responsibility of making sure that her pack stays alive, stays ahead and successful- inherently, Katniss wants to be responsible only for herself and maybe the very few people that she’s decided to give her loyalty to.

Gale’s head is lowered and his gaze is downcast, but something about him, the unbroken line of his shoulders maybe, or the faint smell of resentment, whatever it is- it’s a clear sign that Gale Hawthorne should never have been made into a werewolf. 

Haymitch stands up, fluid and fast and then _moves_ , blurring into Gale’s space until he’s holding the younger wolf up by his neck, claws distended as he grips him off the ground and _squeezes_. 

“Listen to me you little _child_ ,” Haymitch snarls into Gale’s face. He can feel his eyes changing, bleeding over into the crimson red of the alpha, his canines elongating until he’s partially wolfed out. “You think you’re smart, you think you’re tough _shit_ cause you managed to survive some pretty terrible circumstances-“ his voice, his human voice has started bleeding into the sound of his alpha’s growl, blood and violence and too many years spent being terrified out of his mind because he was unlucky enough to be born a wolf. “But I’ve been doing this for longer than you’ve been _alive_ boy, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let a clueless pup be insubordinate.” 

His anger, anger at himself, anger at Snow for what he had done to Haymitch’s family, to Katniss’s family- all of it bleeds through, until Gale’s left huddled, pale, shoulders hunched practically higher than his ears and his eyes so tightly shut that if he was a wolf, his ears wouldn’t have been flattened to his head- they would have _disappeared_. He looks terrified.

As he should. 

“I am going to say this one last time,” Haymitch takes a deep breath and some of the heat flows back, the rage ebbs away and his voice doesn’t sing with blood anymore- just an echo of the forest and a need to run. He’s so tired. He’s been working on this deal for so long and he’s just exhausted. Looking up at Gale, who runs so constantly hot that it’s draining just _looking_ at him- Haymitch takes a deep breath and then lets it out. 

“Either you acknowledge my authority once and for all… or you leave. I cannot have dissent within the pack, I’ve given my whole life to making sure we stay alive and free- I can’t have your hormones and your emotions messing up the work that my entire family _died_ for.” Haymitch shakes Gale, “ _look at me_ , this isn’t a joke. This isn’t me trying to be your friendly neighborhood mentor. This is me telling you that if you have a problem with the way I run things, you need to leave.” 

Gale, pale as moonlight and still so reckless, so young, opens his mouth- “what about Katniss?” 

Haymitch snorts, “kid, if you think that Katniss doesn’t know about this- then you’re really not as aware as you seem to be.” He drops the other wolf but keeps his hand around the back of Gale’s neck, squeezing it not enough to hurt, but firmly enough to remind him of the hierarchy. “Katniss Everdeen knows exactly what’s going on at any given moment, she knew the moment that you walked into my office.” 

Haymitch gives it a moment to sink in, watching with pity as Gale seems to work through the idea that Katniss had known about the brewing conflict and had done nothing. 

“She’s my friend,” Gale says in a low, hollow voice, “she’s my best friend.” He looks up at Haymitch, desperate and yearning and vulnerable. Something of what Katniss must have seen in him, his youth and his strength and despite his immense ability for pigheadedness- the sheer and ultimately naïve _faith_ that he has bleeds through. 

“Of course she’s your friend,” Haymitch smiles at the kid, cursing himself for being a weak old man that can’t even follow through with a threat, “she’s watched you grow up Hawthorne. Has helped your family escape the Hunger Games,” he plows on despite Gale’s instinctual flinch, “Katniss is probably the only reason why you’re still alive. And that’s because she considers you a friend.” 

Haymitch gives Gale’s neck one last squeeze before letting go. “But she considers me _family_. So you’ve got to really think about things, decide whether you’re going to be able to live in the new order, with the changes coming. Because if you decide to stay, I’m going to stop taking it easy on you because you’re my bite’s bite- I’m going to stop letting Katniss, or even the _thought_ of Katniss from disciplining you. And kid,” Haymitch bares his teeth and Gale stumbles from him, eyes flashing a liquid gold as a high whine tears its way out of his throat, “you don’t want me to do that.” 

Haymitch moves towards his desk and locks away the ledger in one of the drawers. He never would from one of his wolves, his money is the pack’s money- and Jesus, it’s not like he wants it, the blood money he earned during the Hunger Games, killing other wolves for the twisted entertainment of Coriolanus Snow and others of his ilk, but this is a matter of principle. 

Gale is walking a tightrope, balancing precariously between full submission, acceptance and outright rebellion. There’s a fifty fifty chance he’ll decide to cut ties with the pack and if he does, Haymitch is not leaving sensitive information in his hands. 

“Stay here,” Haymitch slips the key back around his neck and faces Gale, “in this office. Do not leave the floor. You have until midnight to make your decision. From midnight until four am- you’ll have a clean timeframe to leave if you so choose to. Nobody will stop you. After four, you’ll be treated as an intruder.” 

He walks around Gale, pausing briefly to squeeze the back of the pup’s neck again. Touch is reassurance for them, so is scent. Protection. 

Gale knows that, he leans into Haymitch’s hand for a brief, fleeting moment before straightening up. 

“Don’t do anything stupid and you’ll be fine, you’re a good kid-” Haymitch tells him kindly, because deep inside- he can see that core of goodness that Katniss must have seen in Gale’s six year old self if it had kept her coming back for twelve years of increasingly uneven friendship. Before she had saved him, dying of bloodloss after being whipped at the stocks- before she had given him the bite and brought him down on Haymitch's head.

Gale’s voice stops him near the door. 

“What will happen to my family if I decide to leave?” To his credit, Gale doesn’t waver as he asks and it’s only the fact that Haymitch is his alpha, and is connected to all of his pack that allows the worry and fear to show clear. Gale is the oldest male of his family, it’s only natural that he would worry for them. 

Haymitch carefully avoids the thought of his own family, skirting around twenty year memories with long-practiced denial and slipperiness. His family is self-made now. His pack. 

“Rory has already pledged loyalty to me,” Haymitch says after a pause as he considers the newest addition to their numbers, “the rest are free to do as they choose.” He turns the handle and opens the door, “I have never made it a policy of mine to trick or force people into staying with me. I’m not about to start now.”

He closes the door on Gale’s heavy silence and walks down the corridor. Katniss, as he expected, is waiting for him by the stairs. She looks tired, black bags heavy under her eyes and her usual side braid not as tight on her shoulder. Her blue shirt is slightly wrinkled and it’s not as perfectly tucked into her leather pants as it usually is. 

By Katniss’s standards, she looks practically wrecked. 

“I take it you heard everything?” Haymitch nods back at his closed office and starts walking down. 

Katniss follows behind him. “I did,” she says in a carefully controlled voice, “I thought you were right.”

Haymitch stops as Katniss’s hand whips out to wrap tightly around his forearm. He eyes her curiously, “yes?”

“He’s my responsibility,” Katniss licks her lips, guilt practically radiating off her in waves- “Gale. He’s my bite, I didn’t consult you. I should have. He’s my mistake,” she looks away, “you should let me deal with him.” 

“Katniss,” Haymitch gently pries off the dead grip she has on him and runs a hand over her hair, “sweetheart- look at me.” 

Her eyes are the stark blue of her wolf-form, a second in command- more powerful than the rest of the pack save for him, and more loyal. 

“Shut up,” Haymitch offers with an easy grin, “I told you before I bit you- your mistakes, your accomplishments, we _all_ share them. That’s what pack is, we’re all in this together. Besides, nobody’s going to kill Hawthorne. I’ve been feeling mellow lately…” he offers contemplatively and when Katniss turns a disbelieving eye on him, Haymitch starts stroking his stubbled chin. “I figure we can just maim him and run him out of town, how’s that?” 

He's probably joking. At least a little bit.

Katniss barks out a bite of surprised laughter, a sound more canine than young female. Honest, joyous emotion that’s so hard to come by in their world- Katniss has only started showing it again after he bit her. Once she started feeling safe. 

“Now come on,” Haymitch winks at her cheerfully, “we’ve got lunch to get down to, breakfast seems like a distant memory. Also, I don’t know about you- but I’m feeling pretty damn curious about what the vamps are going to do about food.” 

The biggest rule of the new arrangement had been ‘no outside humans in the house’, Haymitch is seriously looking forward to watching whether Mellark and his ilk aren't too high and mighty to rob a blood-bank like most of the city dwelling vamps tend to do. 

Katniss laughs again before following him, this time with a spring in her step and her previous frown gone. 

And from the shadows, a bright fuchsia clad figure watches them go before heading into the direction of Haymitch’s office where Gale Hawthorne is under imposed house-arrest.


End file.
